Creativity

Democratising Elite Performance Tools with Dr. Andy Walshe

Currently leading Human Performance for Red Bull, Andy works with hundreds of international athletes and business leaders to develop and implement elite performance models. In today’s podcast, Andy and Mark sit down to discuss the intricacies of human potential and how certain qualities of elite performers resonate across sectors, industries and arenas; how companies can evolve to enable more talented employees to excel and his project Human 2.0 which looks at how new technologies especially in the arena of Artificial Intelligence encourage us to explore our own potential at a much higher level.

Ideascale2019-11-28T09:24:22-08:00February 17th, 2017|Categories: Innovation Ecosystem, Podcast|Tags: coaching, Creativity, ecosystem, enterprise innovation, experimentation, Failure, motivation, performance, performance measurement, podcast, Red Bull, reward, talent management, top talent, training|

How to Make Your Design Thinking Program Turn Into Something Real

Why do a large part of the design thinking projects in the corporate world never pass through the prototype phase? In recent years I’ve been involved with many design thinking initiatives. Many of them related to the development of new products inside large companies in industries such as finance, health, education and consumer goods.

Ideascale2021-12-14T06:36:32-08:00February 14th, 2017|Categories: Life Cycle Processes, Organization & Culture, Strategies|Tags: Creativity, design, design thinking, front end of innovation, Ideation, IDEO, Innovation Culture, innovation method, Innovation Strategy, methodology, Product Development, prototype, prototyping, rapid design processes|

Collaborative Innovation – Hamburger Style

Often I read articles or books about top-down vs. bottom-up innovation and why one approach would be better than the other. After spending more than five years in the collaborative innovation space, I would advise going hamburger style!

Ideascale2021-12-14T06:34:14-08:00February 7th, 2017|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Idea Management, Open Innovation|Tags: bottom-up, bottom-up innovation, campaign team, collaborative innovation, Communication, Creativity, crowdvoting, executive sponsor, Ideation, ideation contests, innovation champions, Innovation Strategy, question, suggestion box, synergy, top-down, top-down innovation, workshop|

Creativity is Key: Tips on Avoiding Groupthink

It’s awesome when everyone agrees, isn’t it? Yes—and no. Most of us have, at some point, fallen into the trap of groupthink to avoid conflict and promote harmony in a group, whether at school, work, or on a committee. Groupthink has its perks: everyone feels comfortable, and there’s no risk of tension among members. It’s safe. Easy. Unfortunately, it can also kills creativity and innovation.

Ideascale2021-12-14T06:24:48-08:00January 10th, 2017|Categories: Organization & Culture|Tags: brainstorming, Collaboration, Communication, conflict, Creativity, criticism, debate, divergent thinking, diversity, evaluation of ideas, feedback, gender, groupthink, idea management, Ideation, innovation team, meeting, perspective, Problem Solving, soft skills, suggestion box, team diversity, Teamwork|

How Improvisation can Boost Innovation

If you have an innovative culture already in place (meaning you’re working with stuff like agile project management, design thinking, lean, etc.) perhaps it’s time you consider Applied Improvisation Training. If instead you are a static and uncommunicative company, Applied Improvisation may even work against your innovation efforts. Edoardo Binda Zane explains more.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:16:32-08:00December 21st, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors, Idea Management|Tags: Agile, brainstorm, Communication, Creativity, design thinking, Ideation, improvisation, Innovation Culture, Innovation Strategy, innovation tool, innovation training, leadership, lean, Teamwork|

Executing on Innovation – The Required Key Ingredients

Innovation: We all have seen the biggest, most successful companies talk about it and share their success stories. We have read about it in the latest business journals and magazines. We all want it in our organization but the right recipe with the right ingredients is often elusive. In this article we will share different views and discuss key ingredients required to create, execute, and innovate in your organization.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:14:47-08:00December 20th, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors, Organization & Culture, Strategies|Tags: barriers to innovation, Collaboration, Creativity, culture change, execution of innovation, framework, fuzzy front end of innovation, Ideation, Innovation Culture, innovation planning, innovation portfolio, project portfolio management, risk management, senior management, Teamwork, work environment|

Transformative Constraints — Why They’re Core to Innovation and Inventiveness

They say creativity loves constraint. In fact, if you ask professional, creative people about their “limitations” they naturally see them as exciting and stimulating. Engineers and software designers for instance see constraints as absolutely fundamental to problem solving. So why does constraint get such a bad wrap? Why do so many people see them as things to be managed and talked around and spun? In this week’s episode, Adam Morgan delves deep into this topic and explains his process for creating a framework to understand constraint and a process to help people successfully manage it.

Ideascale2019-11-28T09:24:13-08:00November 25th, 2016|Categories: Innovation Ecosystem, Podcast|Tags: challenge, challenge driven innovation, constraint, Creativity, ecosystem, innovation, innovation tool, interviews, podcast, Problem Solving|

How Innovation Equals Diversity: the Science and Promise of an Inclusive Workplace

Innovation may have a different meaning for every individual, but the true key to thinking outside the box lies in a diverse mindset. Allowing diversity into a business plan can be the secret to succeeding and achieving greatness. Don’t just take my word for it; evidence backs it up too.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:10:16-08:00November 22nd, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors, Organization & Culture|Tags: alibaba, brainstorm, company culture, Creativity, diversity, gender, Ideation, inclusion, Innovation Culture, IoT, mindset, talent management, team building, team diversity, USA, workspace|

Top Diagramming Techniques for more Efficient Meetings

Do you ever find yourself stuck in a meeting that’s stalling? Does the agenda seem to accomplish no tangible outcomes? Perhaps you find yourself wondering what’s next after an important summit, or frustrated with the lack of direction after a meaningful brainstorm or discussion.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:06:30-08:00October 31st, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors, Idea Management, Leadership|Tags: brainstorm, Creativity, diagramming, diagrams, efficiency, how to, Ideation, meeting, meetings, mind mapping, productivity, techniques, visual mapping, visualization|

15 Innovative Meeting Formats that Boost Creativity and Strengthen Engagement

How to organise a meeting in such a way that they result in creativity and energy? How to ensure that people are actively participating instead of being only passively attending meetings?

Ideascale2021-11-16T13:29:55-08:00October 24th, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors, Organization & Culture|Tags: app, autodesk, Best Practices, boeing, coca-cola, Collaboration, Communication, conference, Creativity, Employee Engagement, engagement, events, hackathon, idea management, Ideation, Innovation Culture, inspiration, kanban, linkedin, meeting, meeting formats, meetings, network, participation, pecha kucha, pitch, pitch idea, pixar, startup, teamstreamer, Teamwork, World Café|

A Closer Look at the Three Skill Sets that Enable Innovation

In our previous posts, we’ve made two major points. One: innovation is vital for the long-term survival of any business. And two: a handful of crazy ideas won’t cut the mustard. Successful innovation is a complex process that requires a whole lot more than just riotous creativity. Based on academic research, and in close collaboration with professor Frederik Anseel (Ghent University), we’ve defined three innovation profiles: ideators, champions and implementers. Each of these personas has a crucial part to play in what we like to call ‘innovation dream teams’. What makes them unique and why do you need all three? Let’s take a closer look.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:03:57-08:00October 10th, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors|Tags: business growth, Collaboration, Creativity, HR, ideators, implementation, innovation champions, innovation skills, innovation success, innovation team, long-term success, persistence, personality types, skills management, Success, talent management|

Mad Scientists and Creativity Labs

Managing solitary and collaborative innovation: All innovation is based on creative ideas which are generated and developed by passionate people working alone and with others. Both solitary and collaborative work are important to the effective development of innovation in organizations. The key for leaders is to effectively promote both.

Ideascale2021-12-07T16:00:56-08:00August 30th, 2016|Categories: Collaborative Innovation, Leadership, Organization & Culture|Tags: brainstorm, Collaboration, collaborative innovation, convergent thinking, Creativity, creativity lab, divergent thinking, Employee Engagement, experiment, idea management, Ideation, innovation champion, innovation lab, innovation life cycle processes, innovation team, leadership, personality types, talent management, team building, Teamwork|

The One Skill that Innovators Forget

Most innovators cultivate traits like creative risk taking, positive reinforcement and strategic planning. However, there is another branch of innovation in which innovators still require a great deal of training.

Rob Hoehn2021-12-07T15:58:26-08:00August 22nd, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors|Tags: Collaboration, Communication, communication strategy, Creativity, Crowdsourcing, Employee Engagement, Ideation, ideation contests, innovation skills, innovation success, innovation training, risk-taking, social media, strategic planning, strategy|

Challenged by Innovation? Someone May Have Already Solved Your Problem

In 1946, Soviet inventor and science fiction writer Genrich Altshuller developed a methodology called TRIZ. It became known as "the theory of inventive problem-solving" and was based on a simple premise: across different disciplines and applications, the same challenges occur again and again. Unfortunately, people keep solving nearly identical problems from scratch. The main lesson from TRIZ is this: if you understand how your innovation challenge is similar to someone else’s, you can reapply solutions that already exist, instead of reinventing the wheel time and again.

Ideascale2021-12-07T15:58:02-08:00July 12th, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors|Tags: case study, copycat, Creativity, fuzzy front end of innovation, idea management, Ideation, innovation, inspiration, knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer, Open Innovation, Problem Solving, technology transfer, trend, TRIZ|

Collaborate with Night and Nature to Come up with New Ideas

It is not widely known that most people, before the advent of the Industrial Revolution around 1800, tended to go to sleep shortly after nightfall but then get up around midnight for several hours before going back to sleep until dawn. Modern lab experiments have been able to reproduce this ancient, two-sleep pattern. Furthermore, there is separate anecdotal evidence that a number of people currently practice divided sleep as a natural habit, without the prompting of an experiment. Some of these people, in turn, use their nighttime wakefulness period for creative thought, writing and problem solving. The divided sleep phenomenon fits in very well with the dualistic and holistic principles of East Asian philosophy. One should ideally integrate work, thought and sleep with the natural light cycle in order to maximize the potential for individual creativity over the course of a full day and night.

Ideascale2021-12-07T15:54:18-08:00July 5th, 2016|Categories: Enabling Factors, Innovation Psychology|Tags: asia, Creativity, enabling factors, innovation life cycle processes, innovation psychology, sleep, Zen, Zen philosophy|